Ch. 5 Outside the Party

"Did you really fire her?"

"Yes," Bakugo grumbled as he quickly read over the speech. "She's annoying."

"She's also the first assistant I've ever heard you mention by name. Before her there was just 'Weird Nose,' 'Loud Eater,' and 'Cat Girl.'"

"Don't forget about 'Smelly' who always seemed like she was trying to sniff you,'" Midoriya chimed in.

Kirishima nodded. "And sniff us too when we stopped by."

"Wasn't there one who thought you and Kirishima were dating?" Shoto asked Bakugo.

"Yes! And then another," Kiri added on, "who was convinced that you needed therapy to deal with how you were always praised as a child only to realize later that your early strength may actually be your weakness as others improved faster than you?"

The table was quiet except for Midoriya who snorted. 

"Enough, morons. I fired y/n because I could. The end."

"Let me get this straight," Shoto said. "Y/n organized the limo for you tonight, obviously wrote this speech for you, then left a date to bring it to you after you forgot it, even though you fired her?"

"Did you have her pick out your clothes, too?" Kirishima laughed.

"Shut up."

"So you did! And, not to be creepy," Kirishima said, "but she's gorgeous. Talk about a good first impression when you come to your office."

"Can I hire her?" Midoriya asked. "Because she seems great."

"All of you shut up. I was going to rehire her anyway. I was just testing her."

"Right," Kirishima nodded. "Sure you were."

Luckily the speeches were the very first thing in the program and Bakugo was able to get it out of the way early. As he finished the speech, which he had to admit was pretty well-written, he glanced up from the podium, scanning the crowd.

He wasn't sure what he was looking for but... 

There. Standing at the back of the room.

Why was y/n still here?

Bakugo followed her outside, staying back a little so she wouldn't know he was there. He wasn't even sure why he followed her.

He watched as she paced back and forth, talking on the phone with someone. Watching her there, the streetlights shining on her, he had to admit that she looked incredible.

Aside from that first day, she'd mostly dressed in regular, normal clothes. Nothing like tonight.

With y/n, it was obvious to anyone that she was pretty, but tonight...

Tonight...

Everyone had stared at her, himself included, when she walked in earlier. How could they not?

That tiny, sparkly dress. Her gorgeous skin.

With y/n facing away from him now, he could see the smooth slope of her back, almost completely exposed by her dress. The open back dipped all the way down to tease the slight curve just below her waist, accentuating the small part of the dress that barely covered her ass.

He was pretty sure that she didn't even realize that when she sat down in Todoroki's lap earlier, he'd been able to see the black lace from the garters she was wearing as well.

Thinking about that lace, and where it led...

It led right to all kinds of thoughts he shouldn't be having about an employee.

He'd had assistants before who'd tried to flirt with him or even throw themselves at him, and he'd made sure they didn't last longer than the first day.

He felt sick thinking back on some of the gross stuff the other assistants had tried. One told him she had a body pillow made with his face on it. There was one who brought him soaps and lotions claiming they smelled like him. Complete weirdos.

Y/n didn't do any of those things.

He'd fired her because he'd been thinking about her all week, even when he wasn't at work, and it's not like he could ask her out if he was her boss. He might be an ass but he wasn't a creep.

So he'd fired her. Her barging in on him, like usual, when he was changing clothes only gave him an excuse.

Of course, he could have locked the door before changing, and he knew that. But he didn't.

"Everything okay?" you heard her say into her phone before pausing for the other person's answer. "Okay."

She sounded worried. Okay, here we go, he thought. She's no longer an employee, so I need to be a man and say something.

Bakugo took a deep breath and walked over.

--

You were grateful to be outside, the stuffy ballroom was really getting on your nerves. Yeah, it had been fun to taunt Bakugo a little bit, but the idea of staying in that room full of heroes for one minute longer made you nauseous.

Self-righteous hypocrites. All of them.

Well, most of them. Bakugo's friends seemed all right.

As you waited for the taxi to pull up, your phone rang. Dabi.

"Baby," Dabi's raspy voice purred through your phone.

"I am leaving right now," you said quickly, "and I will be at the club in just a couple minutes."

"Look, baby, I don't think I'm going to be able to see you tonight. Something came up."

"Everything okay?"

"Everything's fine. I'll probably see you tomorrow, okay?"

"What do you mean 'probably'?" you asked.

"I'll do my best."

It took an insane amount of will power to not use your quirk on everyone around you. It didn't work over the phone but even in person, you knew it wasn't fair or ethical to read someone else's thoughts without their permission. Not that you didn't want to sometimes... Dabi's in particular.

As soon as someone knew what you could do, they normally wanted to stay as far away as possible from you, as if you really cared to listen in on their random thoughts all day.

You had to admit that there were moments where you wanted to though.

Like when you sat in Shoto's lap and saw the look on Bakugo's face. A look inside his brain right then would have been pretty interesting. 

You were considering this when you heard his voice behind you.

"Y/n."

Turning around, you were surprised to see Bakugo walking down the sidewalk toward you.

"Why aren't you inside?" you asked. "Isn't your fancy party still going on?"

He ignored your question. "Are you waiting on a taxi? Take my limo."

"No, thanks."

You both stood there silently for a moment. Why was he out there? What more was there to say? He wasn't giving you your job back so this was just weird.

How long was he going to stand there just looking at you?

"You did well up there," you said, breaking the awkward silence.

"You saw?"

"Yeah," you admitted. "I was waiting on a taxi, so I figured I might as well hear how good my speech sounded."

"Your speech, eh? I really thought you took that copy of it with you when you left. But then I saw that you left it on the table."

"I'm not totally heartless," you smiled just a little. "But I did want to make you sweat a little bit."

"That's something I do a lot."

"I know, explosion boy."

Was that a hint of a smirk that you saw on his face? It was a nice change from the normal scowl you saw every day.

"Y/n, look – "

Before he could finish that thought, the taxi pulled up right then.

"That's my car," you said. "I already took home all of my things from work so... I guess this is goodbye."

You lingered just one second longer before getting in the taxi. You could have sworn that he looked like he was about to say something but then...no.

You got in and closed the taxi door behind you.

So that was that, you decided.

You were giving the driver your address when the side door opened suddenly and his big body scooted in next to you, forcing you to move over on the seat.

"Make some room," Bakugo said. "I'm not going to let you ride downtown by yourself."